Did Al-Mokattam really move?

It's me again. I have been conversing with a friend of mine for a while about whether the Al-Mokattam mountain ever moved or is it some folkloric stories that became revered?

Is it really Central to the identity of the Coptic Orthodox Church?

If it proved to be false, what are the ramifications for Simon the tanner being revered, churches after him and prayers to him? How infallible is the church tradition now?

I have searched online for a description for the mountain before the miracle but I couldn't find anything. I found its description in the writing of Qalaqashandi and Al-Maqrizi both died in 15th century and all they say is consistent with the current state of affairs and even when they allude to any event concerning Al-Mokattam, they're not inconsistent with the current position or properties as well. Even the date of the miracle that is said to be 979 is inconsistent with the fact that Al-Moezz died in 975.

Why is Egypt at all Muslim if they saw a 14 km^2 plateau move due to Christian prayers.

Comments

This was something that used to baffle me. I was always taught that this miracle really did happen and had been widely documented. Way back, I just my parents and the servants' word for it but when I actually tried looking up non-synaxarium-based sources on this I couldn't find a single one with a consistent story, if any at all. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'd find the whole page a cluster of "[citation needed]". And as you mentioned, why would Egypt forget about this completely and not even document it in its official history or something? They probably have records dating back from the Pharaohs but I doubt the average Egyptian would even know about or acknowledge the weird-sounding mount at all.

Also, if it took such a small calibre of faith to move a mountain, why do we not see Christians doing it often and why do Copts somehow freeze when I ask them to repeat it? (lol)

Not to mention that this miracle happened in an era where Muslims were destroying any paper records of Christianity, anything with the Coptic language on it, etc.

And the logic of "Why is Egypt at all Muslim if they saw a 14 km^2 plateau move due to Christian prayers" is not sound either considering the Son of God came, raised the dead, healed the sick and created an eyeball for a guy and they put Him on a Cross. "Why isn't the world all Christian if they saw Christ raise people from the dead, change water into wine and feed >5000 with 5 loaves and two fish?"